Nights of the Magical Girlfriends, X, and rambles
This is going to be somewhat sprawling, I think. (Started this post at about 8:45.)
First, a collective thanks for weighing in on the website content. I feel rather a lot better now. ^^
Tori albums always seem to start with this song, except, of course, the album it was originally on. But she kept starting concerts with it, and all (right now I'm listening to it on Tales of a Librarian), so maybe by the time she assembled this collection it just felt like the natural thing to do. Or maybe it's just an imprint on my mind, a fake memory generated from this cd and from the live Venus disc. *shrugs*
I wonder if I believe in memory. Or maybe saying that just sounds interesting, and I like the way it slides in and out of my mind. Maybe it means nothing at all.
The other night I read vol. 5-6 of Video Girl Ai. I really, really like that manga. Can't pin down why, exactly--I think more than anything else it's the artwork? It's sort of soft and yet plausible, manga art with manga art trappings, but an unusual sincerity about it. Lovely series, and I can't even call it formulaic, exactly; is it the first of its kind? I don't remember, if I ever knew. Good old "magical girlfriend" genre. ^^ On a similar note, tonight Chris and I watched the first ep. of the Ah! My Goddess! tv series, and I don't know what to make of it yet. I hadn't realized it was going to be starting the story over, and it's much more fleshed out than the OAV, and the character designs are really different. But the voices are the same, which is neat. I'll have to wait a while to see how it feels with more time to develop.
Bought vol. 17 of X tonight, which has some of my favorite material in it. It's weird, being able to look at a fight and say "oh, that's basically the fight from THAT part of the anime, except that they're fighting someone completely different". They're translating gouhoujouji as "avatar" mostly, although Yuzuriha says something about it being a "daemon" used by esoteric Buddhists. I wonder if they actually keep saying "esoteric Buddhists/ism all the time in Japanese. And I wonder what those things are in Sorata's hand right before he puts up the small kekkai to talk to Kamui. Chris says they look like throwing blades. o_o
And I really, really wish the anime hadn't butchered Sora so much. This manga translation is no great shakes, but it's still obvious that Sora's a mystic of real power and subtlety. And, ok, in the tv series he had plenty of raw power, but . . . meh. He's so calm about shields and spells and, oh, "If the Hidden Priestess of Ise didn't detect my spell it must've been pretty good, huh?" . . . *cries* I love this volume. Wonder when 18 is coming out? And I really want to know what Viz is gonna do about those chapters that don't quite shape into a vol. 19 . . . I don't know if they were compiled into a tiny volume in Japanese or not.
***
Chinese New Year and the beginning of Lent at the same time. I'm not Catholic (never have been), but today at work I had a vague urge to go have a priest put the ashes on my face. Ritualistic leanings coming out, I guess. Having those leanings, coming out of a non-ritualistic form of Christianity (and now being in a *very* non-ritual-oriented Christian affiliation), makes it kind of hard to know how to express them. If I'd grown up with them, I wonder if I'd be the type to find them comforting or restricting? Both of my parents (ex-Catholic and -Lutheran) rejected it, and that alone might be a sign that it would work for me. Not "because they're my parents", but . . . the differences in the ways we think even on things we agree on is pretty flabbergasting,
And yesterday I forgot about both holidays, and had neither potstickers nor pancakes. I did, however, clip a dumpling recipe out of the paper and hang onto it. ^^
The way I type means I can leave one finger holding down the shift key and type in all caps without losing any speed or bothering with the capslock. Talk about your useless skills.
Trying to stay hydrated is even harder when I'm sick. Water tastes gross enough without the way *everything* tastes these days. >.< My skin is suffering for it.
Listening to "Baker Baker" now, and there's something in it that captures an edge of the feeling I'm trying to write. It's not working.
Baker, baker, can you explain? If truly his heart was made of icing
And I wonder how mine could taste . . . Maybe we could change his mind?
Time . . . thought I'd made friends with time. Thought we'd be flying.
Maybe not this time . . .
It's interesting to me how the meaning of songs can change. When Chris and I broke up forever ago, I listened to that song a *lot*. But that echo of its meaning for me at that time is pretty much gone; I only remember intellectually that it existed. But songs like "Girl" have all kinds of meaning and layers to me now--they add up, but they don't crush each other. It's reminded me of my friend K since I met her, back in 1996 or so; it still reminds me of what she was like then. It's also a character song for me now, and other things besides, all in the same space in my head but not crowding each other out.
I think what I'm trying to write is just not willing to be written, even though it's been lurking in my head for a few days. I can't decide if it's not ready yet and is playing coy, or if I've missed my chance with it and it's going to sulk uselessly around in my skull until it vanishes. Maybe I'll give it some more undivided attention, although I've already tried *that* two evenings in a row.
First, a collective thanks for weighing in on the website content. I feel rather a lot better now. ^^
Tori albums always seem to start with this song, except, of course, the album it was originally on. But she kept starting concerts with it, and all (right now I'm listening to it on Tales of a Librarian), so maybe by the time she assembled this collection it just felt like the natural thing to do. Or maybe it's just an imprint on my mind, a fake memory generated from this cd and from the live Venus disc. *shrugs*
I wonder if I believe in memory. Or maybe saying that just sounds interesting, and I like the way it slides in and out of my mind. Maybe it means nothing at all.
The other night I read vol. 5-6 of Video Girl Ai. I really, really like that manga. Can't pin down why, exactly--I think more than anything else it's the artwork? It's sort of soft and yet plausible, manga art with manga art trappings, but an unusual sincerity about it. Lovely series, and I can't even call it formulaic, exactly; is it the first of its kind? I don't remember, if I ever knew. Good old "magical girlfriend" genre. ^^ On a similar note, tonight Chris and I watched the first ep. of the Ah! My Goddess! tv series, and I don't know what to make of it yet. I hadn't realized it was going to be starting the story over, and it's much more fleshed out than the OAV, and the character designs are really different. But the voices are the same, which is neat. I'll have to wait a while to see how it feels with more time to develop.
Bought vol. 17 of X tonight, which has some of my favorite material in it. It's weird, being able to look at a fight and say "oh, that's basically the fight from THAT part of the anime, except that they're fighting someone completely different". They're translating gouhoujouji as "avatar" mostly, although Yuzuriha says something about it being a "daemon" used by esoteric Buddhists. I wonder if they actually keep saying "esoteric Buddhists/ism all the time in Japanese. And I wonder what those things are in Sorata's hand right before he puts up the small kekkai to talk to Kamui. Chris says they look like throwing blades. o_o
And I really, really wish the anime hadn't butchered Sora so much. This manga translation is no great shakes, but it's still obvious that Sora's a mystic of real power and subtlety. And, ok, in the tv series he had plenty of raw power, but . . . meh. He's so calm about shields and spells and, oh, "If the Hidden Priestess of Ise didn't detect my spell it must've been pretty good, huh?" . . . *cries* I love this volume. Wonder when 18 is coming out? And I really want to know what Viz is gonna do about those chapters that don't quite shape into a vol. 19 . . . I don't know if they were compiled into a tiny volume in Japanese or not.
***
Chinese New Year and the beginning of Lent at the same time. I'm not Catholic (never have been), but today at work I had a vague urge to go have a priest put the ashes on my face. Ritualistic leanings coming out, I guess. Having those leanings, coming out of a non-ritualistic form of Christianity (and now being in a *very* non-ritual-oriented Christian affiliation), makes it kind of hard to know how to express them. If I'd grown up with them, I wonder if I'd be the type to find them comforting or restricting? Both of my parents (ex-Catholic and -Lutheran) rejected it, and that alone might be a sign that it would work for me. Not "because they're my parents", but . . . the differences in the ways we think even on things we agree on is pretty flabbergasting,
And yesterday I forgot about both holidays, and had neither potstickers nor pancakes. I did, however, clip a dumpling recipe out of the paper and hang onto it. ^^
The way I type means I can leave one finger holding down the shift key and type in all caps without losing any speed or bothering with the capslock. Talk about your useless skills.
Trying to stay hydrated is even harder when I'm sick. Water tastes gross enough without the way *everything* tastes these days. >.< My skin is suffering for it.
Listening to "Baker Baker" now, and there's something in it that captures an edge of the feeling I'm trying to write. It's not working.
Baker, baker, can you explain? If truly his heart was made of icing
And I wonder how mine could taste . . . Maybe we could change his mind?
Time . . . thought I'd made friends with time. Thought we'd be flying.
Maybe not this time . . .
It's interesting to me how the meaning of songs can change. When Chris and I broke up forever ago, I listened to that song a *lot*. But that echo of its meaning for me at that time is pretty much gone; I only remember intellectually that it existed. But songs like "Girl" have all kinds of meaning and layers to me now--they add up, but they don't crush each other. It's reminded me of my friend K since I met her, back in 1996 or so; it still reminds me of what she was like then. It's also a character song for me now, and other things besides, all in the same space in my head but not crowding each other out.
I think what I'm trying to write is just not willing to be written, even though it's been lurking in my head for a few days. I can't decide if it's not ready yet and is playing coy, or if I've missed my chance with it and it's going to sulk uselessly around in my skull until it vanishes. Maybe I'll give it some more undivided attention, although I've already tried *that* two evenings in a row.